"Freedom" thread or something

You mean private tutors?  Strictly, depends.  Some simply cram a condensed version of the subject into your head which is good enough to max the exams but won't help you if you want to apply it in practical situations.  But otherwise, some of the best teachers I have had, especially at higher levels, were actually those who ran their own 'classes' (as we call them) because they took the time to give students a good conceptual foundation.   I would not say even then they were all totally amazing or awe inspiring but they did their job well and I am a self reliant person, errmm...when it comes to education anyway, so I helped myself wherever there were gaps.  I spent money on a tax course for my final CPA (CA is what we call it) papers but it was a waste because the tutor was not good.  But I had already been doing a lot of tax work in my apprenticeship so I didn't really need it, in hindsight.  So anyhow the situation of private tutorship shows how markets fill the need felt by students for good teaching and also provide an opportunity to people who might not find compensation in schools and colleges appetising enough.

Maybe debt makes the students complacent. It pinches more if you have to pay for it with whatever you've actually got by way of savings than if you can have a loan take care of it and hope to recoup it when you start working.  

Ah, debt!  Sorry if I ask too many questions of detail, but what are the interest rates (if any) charged on student loans?  They are pretty high (like interest on any other loan for that matter) in India so only the really ambitious students who want to study in the best engineering institutes/B-schools do it. But you can get through a normal graduate program, say, in commerce, with a very nominal financial burden, especially if it's one that gets govt aid.  And back when I was studying, the IT virus was so rampant that there was less competition for commerce seats so it was relatively speaking a breeze for me.  Don't know if that's necessarily true today because CPA equivalents here get jobs more easily than those going to the software industry, who have to wait months together, sometimes a year, to get placed.

Edited by rogerthat - June 21 2014 at 01:27

But what stops the market creating more seats at lower prices to compensate for this?  Is it teachers' unions keeping salaries of teachers high, something like that?  Because land on average is pretty cheap in USA compared to India so that can't be the issue.  

India.

That's awful.  Access of good education should be decided on merit, not money.  But by the same token, quotas for minorities also need to go, at least at higher levels. It is alright at the primary level but one would expect that less privileged students would also be equipped enough to secure higher education on merit.

^^^  Well, I think 'paid' seats are an absolute disgrace.  It's one thing if there is no demand but if there are more candidates than seats, then allocation should be on merit.  Don't know whether such a concept even exists in USA, but it's certainly rampant here.  No person should be able to buy his way into a good institution in spite of being a mediocre student just because he has the money that a more deserving candidate doesn't.  These are some of the aspects where it may be difficult to completely do away with regulation.  With that said, I don't see that regulation has solved the problem. What with liberals bleeding their hearts all over pass percentages, our high school scoring has become utter madness where students with 94% can't get a seat!   You should allow students to fail or get poor marks, it's part of life, it's NOT inhuman.

Edited by rogerthat - June 20 2014 at 22:56

Back home too, supposedly left leaning media organisations or even politicians are more interested in stopping the demolition of an illegally built residential complex for the wealthy.  They are more interested in decrying hikes of premium passenger rail fares or petrol, things which may affect the middle or upper middle class but not so much the poor.  Left has become a vehicle for voicing middle class's need to be pampered, i.e., pocket all the pay hikes you get at work but do not pay a penny extra for services to compensate for inflation.  I think perhaps the dramatic reduction in the political power of trade unions has 'left' them clueless.

I don't believe much in affirmative action either. 

Which one? 

Edited by The T - June 20 2014 at 16:20